12.29.2014

The 2%

Figures vary from 0.5 to 3% of the US population being vegan. For myself, I have settled on 2% as being the firm number. The irony of this is that people are keenly interested in health and fitness and diets. You have all sorts of products to cater to this interest such as gluten free products that are now the current fad. The diet and fitness industry is a colossal one with ABCNEWS reporting that it is a $20 billion dollar industry with 100 million dieters. With all of this interest in diet and health, you would assume that the vegan portion of the population would be larger than 2%. Yet, that number does not budge. I can also tell you that it will never budge. People will try any and every other thing except the one thing that works. This would be the vegan diet. Yet, people would rather die than go vegan.

It mystifies me when a doctor on television will tell people that they need to lose weight. Then, the dietary advice they give is to keep eating the same stuff they are eating. They put a little lip smack on "portion size," but they don't tell people to do anything differently except maybe opt for a baked potato instead of french fries with their bacon double cheeseburger. When it comes to nutrition, most doctors are useless and stupid.

Being vegan works. I can understand why people would be confused because of all of the bad information out there. So, this is how I cut through all of the confusion. I tell people to try being vegan for just three days. At the end of three days, I ask if they were successful. The ones who could actually make it for three days report feeling better. They have more energy. Then, I tell them to stretch it for two weeks. At the end of two weeks, these people report significant weight loss, increase in energy, and the disappearance of gastrointestinal issues. What happens after two weeks? That's simple. They go back to eating meat like a dog returning to its own vomit, and they try hard to forget what they discovered.

Why do people do this? The simple fact is that people love to eat crap. McDonald's has tried for years to offer healtheir fare on their menus, but they learn the same lesson again and again. People may ask for healthier options, but they will ignore them in practice. People want their McLardburgers regardless of what they say.

The confusion about diet comes from people who want to eat bad food but turn it into healthy eating. These people know better. If they can sow enough seeds of doubt, this allows them to indulge in their meat fantasies. I don't have a problem with people who want to eat crap. I do have a problem with people that lie. My only wish is that people would just admit that they would rather die than give up eating meat.

The only healthy diet is a vegan diet. Every other diet is healthy only in relation to that vegan ideal. A vegetarian diet is not as healthy as a vegan diet, but it is much better than the standard burger 'n fries diet of my past. When I debate people on the diet thing, my goal is not to get them to become vegan because I know that is never going to happen. I just push them to the point of admitting that they would rather die than be vegan. Once I am there, the debate is done for me. After that, they can eat and die.